My first day as a member of The Peacock Club.
I have to say I was really looking forward to this day, having booked just over a week ago when the weather was truly lovely.
I was taking Keith, a really nice guy from Leicester who, I had met last year when on a 'John Tyzack weekend' (Pi.. up) on the Tees.
Keith had never fished the Wye before and that worried me a tad as I have only been half a dozen times previously and did not want him to rely on me for info. I still have very basic knowledge in fly fishing and anyone who has been with me will certainly endorse this!
We met at the hotel at 10:00 and discussed tactics. (blind leading the blind). The Wye was low but several anglers had had good days in the previous week (Glen Pointon, Dave Woods, John Tyzack, and Mick Martin). No pressure then!
The idea was to start at Cauldwell Mill, fish for a couple of hours, have lunch and try near the town later.
Walking up the meadow we saw another angler in a nice spot that I was going to suggest to Keith as I dearly wanted him to catch on his first visit.
So, change of plan, we wandered further up, found a couple of likely spots and began to cast.
It was far from warm and a NW wind was building up which didn’t help.
Luckily, having missing a take on my second cast, I caught a nice little rainbow a couple of minutes later..
We’d only been there about 10 minutes when Jan turned up and informed us that there were 11 anglers on today and 5 were just upstream on the same stretch.
We made an instant decision and drove up to Scot’s Garden.
The wind had got up and we both found it very difficult to cast. However, I spotted a rise and I sat for some while, watching a fish that was obviously on the feed. I couldn’t tell what it was taking but I fluked a cast to where it was and it took my little sedge almost immediately. A lovely rainbow was landed, just over a couple of pounds I reckon.
I can honestly say that was a great moment for me as it was the biggest trout I had caught outside the ‘town’ section.
I then lost one and missed a few takes before it was time to walk downstream.
We walked through the busy town and Keith was amazed how the huge trout there were competing for the bread with the ducks. I have to say, it is an eye opener even to some one who has seen it before, and I remarked, “You can have a crack at them later.” The smell of fish and chips then stimulated something in my brain and I wanted some.
I managed a couple more
But we resisted and wandered downstream. I then managed to catch a couple more, missing several, just past the Rec.
Keith then caught his first wild rainbow. We were made up! He was obviously delighted but not as much as me. The wind was causing all sorts of problems. It was so blustery and you really had to time your cast.
Tummy clock ticked and the chip shop called. We made our way back to the town and had some fodder. Although only about 16:30, it was getting much cooler and the crowds had gone. I suggested to Keith that we might try this stretch now and call it a day.
Take a big net for the town section
A change of leader and a LTD sedge landed me a few nice trout to about 4lb.
Keith lost two. The Police arrived and Keith was questioned as someone had reported us fishing the hallowed water! (The policeman was very courteous and obviously knows what a poacher looks like. All good banter!)
At about 17:00 we packed up.
An excellent day
